If you don't get enough sleep, you run a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, anxiety, and depression. Now lack of sleep is being tied to Alzheimer’s disease, too. Losing just one night of sleep led to an immediate increase in beta-amyloid, a protein in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Beta amyloid forms the main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brain of Alzheimer’s patient. It harms communication between neurons. A separate study also recently found that sleep deprivation impacts the beta-amyloid burden in regions of the brain implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. This situation also resulted in ...
Gilbert de Hoyos opened Barrio Barista because he enjoys serving coffee to West Side residents in San Antonio (67% Latino). He also likes to cook. So de Hoyos added a small menu. And he didn't want it full of unhealthy options, either. De Hoyos is among a growing number of eateries that have joined a city health program, ¡Por Vida!, that unites nutritionists with restaurants to promote healthier menu options. “San Antonio and especially the West Side have a reputation of not having healthy foods and I want to change that by cooking delicious foods that also support a healthy life," de Hoyos said. “It’s my way of giving back to the community." One of those options is his roasted vegetable tacos with remoulade sauce served on a corn tortilla, Kens5 reports. The ...
We know “food swamps” are linked to obesity. We also know Latinos often live in food swamps─where people lack access to healthy foods and have lots of nutrition-poor food options. For example, many Latino neighborhoods lack supermarkets but have abundant fast-food, according to a Salud America! Research Review. Now a recent study shows how Latina mothers deal with life in food swamps.
Latina Moms & Food Swamps
The George Washington University study sought to understand how mothers who lived in Washington, D.C., food swamps feed their children. The mothers were Latina and had been in the Unites States for less than 15 years. Each mother had at least one child younger than 10. Latina mothers valued foods that they considered to be traditional and healthy, ...
To become a productive adult, a child needs more than great academic experiences. Social and emotional learning experiences, for example, can instill responsibility, integrity, and justice in our youngest children. Schools, communities and healthcare professionals play a big role in addressing trauma and stimulating social and emotional development, which requires an understanding of how childhood trauma impacts kids’ brains, bodies, and behavior. We at Salud America! created an Action Pack to help your school take steps to become more trauma-informed/sensitive to reduce absenteeism and misconduct and help students become healthy, productive members of society. Let’s use #SaludTues on June 19, 2018, to see Action Pack and tweet how schools can become trauma-informed to ...
Suicide rates have increased drastically across the United States from 1999-2016, according to a new report released by the CDC. Suicide rates are highest among White and Native American/Alaska Native populations. However, suicide rates for Latinos and African Americans are continually rising, the data shows. There were also significant increases in several states including Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Additionally, more than half the suicides in 2015 were among people with no known mental health conditions, according to an article in the Boston Globe. On the heels of two recent celebrity suicides - Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain - the “data are disturbing,” Anne Schuchat of the CDC told SCNow. “The widespread nature of the increase, in every state but ...
Omar Gonzalez and many of his neighbors love playing nightly pick-up soccer games on the fields at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Gonzalez never expected to get kicked off the field. But that's what happened one night when a local sports league, which had mostly white players in uniforms, showed a permit they had paid to use the fields. They asked the neighbors to stop their game and leave. Gonzalez and his neighbors were confused. No one had ever used a permit to play there on weeknights. So they started a battle to allow open and fair usage of the fields.
Sports and field use across the country
After-school sports are great for building youth leaders and boosting health. However, Latino kids are less likely than ...
In Massachusetts, the opioid overdose rate for Latinos has nearly doubled in three years, reaching twice the rate of whites and African Americans, NPR reports. Massachusetts isn’t alone, either. Latino opioid overdoses are rapidly rising across the nation, according to the CDC. Specifically, the Latino death toll for opioid overdoses rose 52.5% from 2014 to 2016. That’s compared to a 45.8% rise among whites. "What we thought initially, that this was a problem among non-Hispanic whites, is not quite accurate," Robert Anderson, who works at CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, told NPR. "If you go back into the data, you can see the increases over time in all of these groups, but we tended to focus on the non-Hispanic whites because the rates were so much ...
Are you a city or county leader who wants to increase local access to healthy food? You are invited to the Healthy Food Policy Project's new webinar—"Supporting Healthy Food Access: Are There Local Laws For That?"—at 1p.m. EST on Wednesday, June 13, 2018.
About the Food Access Webinar
Food access is an important issues in our nation. For example, fast food and corner stores outnumber supermarkets in many Latino neighborhoods, according to a Salud America! research review. This creates food swamps where obesity rises. Cities and counties are using law and policy to support healthy eating in many ways. Laws can focus on socially disadvantaged groups, like Latinos. They can focus on environmental and economic goals, too. The webinar will shocase the Healthy Food Policy ...
Climate leadership comes in all shapes, sizes, and places. The Let’s Lead on Climate guide features stories from faith-based and community groups that engage their constituents to elevate climate action and solutions across the nation. “Whether you are a locally elected leader, pastor, nurse, or other community leader, this guide will help you take the first steps toward local climate leadership,” the guide states.
The Guide Can Help Latinos and Many More
Latinos are worried about global warming, but fewer Latinos view themselves as activists, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Latinos thus may not feel comfortable reaching decision makers or taking action. What can they do? The Let’s Lead on Climate shows key insights and lessons ...
